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More than 25,000 homes in Oakville will be among the first to lose door-to-door mail delivery beginning this fall, but many details of the roll-out are still unclear.

Canada Post has named 11 communities that will be the first to be converted to community mailboxes as part of a five-year plan to eliminate home delivery as a cost-savings measure.

“I know a lot of people aren’t very happy about it, but they’re kind of realistic,” said Paul Baillie, who has lived in Oakville for 44 years.

Baillie’s home is one of 25,300 residential addresses and 1,100 business addresses in Oakville which will lose their home delivery this fall.

“It’s going to be a major change,” said Baillie, the president of the Southwest Central Oakville Resident’s Association.

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About 60 per cent of Oakville already has community mailboxes.

Oakville Mayor Rob Burton said he is concerned about where the new community mailboxes will be installed. He’s been told there will be about one mailbox for every 50 homes, which means at least 500 mailboxes will need to be installed in Oakville by this fall.

“Do you have any confidence that the federal government could build and consult 500 community mailboxes by October?” Burton said. “If they started today, they’d have to do five every day.”

Canada Post has said they will consult with municipal planners, but Burton said the crown corporation has the authority to install boxes within a few metres of roads and the final say on where they go.

“The word ‘consult’ has to be understood that they make the decisions, and they’re free to take or ignore any advice received,” Burton said.

Businesses which are in well-established business corridors or receive a large volume of mail or parcels will be unaffected.

John Sawyer, the president of Oakville’s Chamber of Commerce, described the service cuts as a downward spiral.

“Businesses are moving more and more to electronic communication, which reduces the volume to the post office, which cuts their revenue, which means they need to cut services, which means it’s just going to push us more quickly to be moving toward electronic communication,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer said the bigger burden for businesses will be the increase in the price of domestic stamps. The price will rise on March 31 from the current 63 cents to 85 cents if bought in bulk, and $1 for single stamps.

The crown corporation says the drop in mail volumes is forcing it to rethink its operations. It plans on eliminating 6,000 to 8,000 jobs as well as streamline operations.

It says the neighbourhoods targeted for initial conversion were chosen because they are near areas that already have community mailboxes.

The national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers called the cuts unnecessary and vowed to fight “every step of the way.” In a press release, Denis Lemelin said the reduction of door-to-door service will hurt people living in the 11 affected neighbourhoods.

Affected residents will soon receive an information package from Canada Post in the mail. It will tell them how they can voice their priorities and preferences about their new delivery method.

Baillie said he wanted Canada Post to ensure the mailboxes will be placed in safe, well-lit areas and are aesthetically pleasing.

“You don’t want to have these big ugly things on their lawns,” Baillie said.

Mayor Burton echoed the need for consultation with the public and municipalities.

“I just hope that the people who make the decisions are forthright enough to own them in public and stand behind them,” Burton said.

The other communities targeted for early conversion to mailboxes are in Calgary, Fort McMurray, Winnipeg, Kanata, Ont., Lower Sackville and Bedford in Nova Scotia, and five suburbs of Montreal.

Canada Post says about 100,000 addresses will be affected in the first wave of changes. In all, the post office still delivers to the door of about 5 million addresses in Canada, about one-third of addresses.

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